Hello from Michigan!

Hi!

I'm Cameron and I'm a 25-year-old <female!> biology grad student in SE Michigan! Although I am not studying caudates, I have always loved them! Can't wait to get involved in this community and learn about these awesome creatures!

I am getting everything set up for my 2 Tiger Salamanders that are scheduled to arrive Thursday. I have a medium-sized Exo Terra terrarium that I will be preparing for their arrival. My basic plan is to have ~4" of substrate (probably a 50:50 organic top soil/coconut fiber mix) on top of a layer of hydroballs. I also wanted to gather some moss from an undisturbed/pesticide-free local forest... would this be safe to use in this setup? I like the look of moss but I heard that commercially-available sphagnum is too acidic for these animals (can anyone confirm that?).

Again, it's great to be apart of this community! I look forward to chatting with everyone!

Good to see fellow Michiganian! Hopefully someone with more experience in Tiger sals will see this and post. Moss from a pesticide-free area should be ok.

I'm just seeing this now. If you use hydroballs, make sure you have something above them which the salamanders can't dig through because they will dig down to the bottom. The only concern with moss is that they might eat the moss by accident and it could cause an impaction.

The race of tigers I sent you really don't need very moist conditions.

You can silicone a piece of fly screen above the bioballs section to keep the sallys from digging down. Sheet moss you find here in Michigan should be fine and will introduce some helpful "bugs" to your setup.